'Everybody has talent and it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is. A talent is a combination of something you love a great deal and something you can lose yourself in.'

A quote from Mark Cuban

"Talent without effort is wasted talent. And while effort is the one thing you can control in your life, applying that effort intelligently is next on the list."

'Follow your enthusiasm. It's something I've always believed in. Find those parts of your life you enjoy the most. Do what you enjoy doing.'

- "Muppets" creator Jim Henson (1936-1990)

'I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning ... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.'

- Miles Davis (1926-1991)

'You shouldn't dream your film, you should make it!'

- Filmmaker Steven Spielberg (1946-present)

'Because of phones, we always have the ability to jump out of ourselves. But unless you learn how to be in your head, you’ll never learn how to create.'

- Songwriter and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda (1980-present)

'You will never feel proud of your work if you find no joy within it; your best work is always joyful work.'

- Stevie Wonder (1950-present)

'Pioneering is never done in front of cheerleaders urging on a roaring grandstand of popular approval.'

- "Star Trek" actor George Takei (1937-present)

'It's those who lie outside ordinary experience who have the most to teach us.'

- Author Malcolm Gladwell (1963 - present)

'Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it.'

- Actress Julie Andrews (1935 - present)

'I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.'

-Comedian George Burns (1896-1996)

'American Graffiti' gave George Lucas the credibility to have 'Star Wars' produced

The idea for "Star Wars" was initially rejected by studios. It wasn't until "American Graffiti," Lucas' 1973 nostalgic comedy, became an unexpected hit that anyone was willing to produce what Lucas called his "space film."

Watch an interview with Philip Glass about his career and theory of creativity, which he believes needs to be consistently deconstructed and reinvented.

'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.'

- Albert Einstein

Read a 1971 magazine feature on Lucas' debut film, the sci-fi 'THX 1138'

Almost a decade before the arrival of "Star Wars," George Lucas directed "THX 1138," a grim science fiction film about a dystopian future in the vein of George Orwell's "1984." This article from the October 1971 issue of American Cinematographer features a young George Lucas, who developed the film from a short he worked on while a student at the University of Southern California just a few years earlier.

George Lucas used Joseph Campbell's 'hero's journey,' a narrative structure that encompasses the common characteristics of multiple cultures' mythologies, to revise 'Star Wars.'

'Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.'

- Musician Tom Petty (1950–2017)

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are noted fans of Norman Rockwell

The famous film directors are admirers and collectors of the American painter. Lucas, in particular, relates to Rockwell’s process, which resembles casting for a film. In 2010, the Smithsonian American Art Museum introduced a Rockwell exhibit showcasing works from Lucas’ and Spielberg’s private collections. This video from that exhibit features both directors talking about how and why they became interested in acquiring Rockwell’s work.

Martha Graham's philosophy of creativity

The influential choreographer and dancer once said that creative people will never be satisfied with their work. Instead, "there is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

'Your failures are your accomplishments because it makes you prepared for whatever it is that you are going to do next.'

- Director Lee Daniels (1959-present)

A quote by Howard Hughes

"Do the impossible, because almost everyone has told me my ideas are merely fantasies."

'All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.'

- Musician George Harrison (1943–2001)

A quote by Lucille Ball

"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."

'We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.'

- Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury

A quote by athlete Walter Payton

"When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. When you're great at something, they'll tell you."

Listen to an in-depth, career-spanning interview with Steven Spielberg.

In this conversation with the Ringer's Sean Fennessy, the esteemed director reflects on his early life and how it inspired a career in moviemaking. In particular, Spielberg notes the impact of seeing Disney's "Fantasia" at a young age and how it terrified him in a way he found fascinating.

Why mythologist Joseph Campbell loved 'Star Wars'

Joseph Campbell, the literature professor who wrote about the power of mythology, suggested that "Star Wars" was a powerful modern myth that used classic archetypes to communicate a universal message.

'My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others' negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.'

-Apple co-founder Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

'Mediocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it'

- Graham Cooke

Even at the height of his popularity, Spielberg felt like an outsider

By 1992, Spielberg was already one of the most successful names in Hollywood, but he had trouble kicking the alienation he’d felt as a kid. In this interview from 1992, on the cusp of the biggest year of his career, he talks about that feeling and how it motivated him.

'The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.'

- American musician BB King (1925-2015)

'I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.'

- Author Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

'I don't know what you can say about a day when you see four beautiful sunsets.'

- Astronaut John Glenn (1921–2016)

'Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.'

- Judy Garland

'The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity. It's our attempt to influence things, the universe internal to ourselves and external to us.'

- Mae Jemison (1956-present), the first Black woman in space

The Lucasian Chair is among the most prestigious academic positions in science

Once held by icons like Newton, Dirac, and Hawking, the position was founded in 1663. "Star Trek" imagined the Lucasian Chair’s future holder as the android Data, cementing its mythos across scientific and science fiction realms.

'We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves.'

- Astronaut John Glenn (1921–2016)

'If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.'

- Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

'In my experience, each failure contains the seeds of your next success—if you are willing to learn from it.'

- Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen (1953–2018)

'The urge to explore has propelled evolution since the first water creatures reconnoitered the land. Like all living systems, cultures cannot remain static; they evolve or decline. They explore or expire.'

- Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (1930-present)

Read the writing advice of science-fiction legend Ray Bradbury.

'Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.'

- Inventor Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

A quote by award-winning actor Tom Hanks

"We are still in the position of waking up and having a choice. Do I make the world better today somehow, or do I not bother?"

How American politics influenced 'Star Wars'

George Lucas believed that myths were how societies communicated notions of good and evil, and that modern myths were found on movie screens. This deep dive from the Los Angeles Review of Books explores how Lucas' disillusionment with the Vietnam War and his disgust with President Richard Nixon informed some of the themes in "Star Wars."

A quote from Van Gogh

"Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful."

A deep dive into the long road to making 'Star Wars'

In this podcast, Chris Taylor, author of "How 'Star Wars' Conquered the Universe," details the long road—lined with studio rejections, a dismissive crew, glacially slow special effects, and last-minute edits—George Lucas traveled to see "Star Wars" through to its release.

'Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a persons own mind—than on the externals in the world.'

- George Washington (1732-1799)

Ray Bradbury said Steven Spielberg was 'one of the most incredible young talents that's ever come into the world.'

'At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.'

- Singer Tina Turner (1993–2023)

'Art is the human disposition of sensible or intelligible matter for an aesthetic end.'

- Author James Joyce (1882 -1941)

'Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.'

- Pablo Picasso